Guest Blogging, Growth, and more

My friend Don, aka "Gunny", has been a full time Airstreamer for years....maybe a guest blogger?

The idea of “guest bloggers” has been bouncing around in my head for a while.  Now, I don’t have a draw like a Scott Kelby, but the site traffic has been growing steadily all year, so exposure here might help a guest blogger………Finally I’ve come to a conclusion……..

Twice a month I’m going to try and round up a guest blogger.

For instance, Rob Jamason’s photography really wow’s me.  So this morning I had a conversation with him about doing a guest post and talking about his style and techniques for shooting some really wild portrait work.  We had our conversation while he was driving to shoot a wedding in CA this weekend.  Ugh, wedding shoots……..

The guest blogging isn’t going to be confined to photographers though.  Oh no siree bub.  See, this is “The Airstream Chronicles Continued,” after all, right?  Of course.  This blog gets into photography, Airstream Living, new life starts, and more.  Basically I’m open to any type of guest blogging post someone can come up with (within reason of course, and sticking to the G rated to PG rated).  So, to all the readers out there……..got something to say?  If so, drop me a line.

With luck we’ll have our first guest blogger up in a few weeks, and it will be Robert Jamason discussing his really amazing work.  Once we get a post together I’ll give you a heads up here.

Natchez the dog could guest blog too.

Given the recent growth here, I think the guest blogging would be good.  I don’t have the only perspective in the world, nobody does.  And it would be nice to share what others are doing.  With a growing readership I want to make sure you’re all entertained.

How much growth is occurring?  40% readership growth month over month for the past 6 months.  Feed growth has skyrocketed and this month is targeted for 60% positive growth.  That’s huge, and it’s been a continuing trend all year.  Also, the average reader here looks at 7+ pages per visit.  I never knew I was that interesting, but thanks guys!   Finally, the average reader is spending nearly 10 minutes per visit.  I bet that has something to do with the Podcsts……  🙂

With all the growth you’d think my Google ranking would go up to 4 out of 10.  Or that my Alexa ranking would show more than one other site linking in.  In reality there are more than 40 sites that link into me.  But I messed up separating my web site up the way I did.  Blog.richcharpentier.com comes under www.richcharpentier.com.  So the links into the “sub-pages” aren’t being accounted properly.  I’m working on figuring that issue out.

So……growth, guest blogging……what’s next?  Who knows.  More trips, more photos, more printing, more clients?  Probably all of the above and stuff I haven’t even considered yet.

Finally, if you’re wondering about the photos on today’s post……. My friend Gunny is in town.  Don Primrose, aka Gunny, has been a full time Airstreamer for years.  I met him at the 2006 WBCCI International Rally in Salem, OR.  He spends the summers in OR and the winters in TX.  On his way through he usually stops in for a visit.  He’ll be pulling out tomorrow, and I wanted to make sure to mentioned he’d been around for a bit before he disappears to his wintering spot in Austin!  Glad you popped by Gunny!  We’ll see you again soon.